


A Purrfect Home

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Series: Flufftober 2019 [15]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Just Add Kittens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 06:23:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21049766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: When Alec agrees to let a pregnant cat stay in the loft instead of on the balcony, he doesn't bargain on a family of kittens staying the winter. He certainly doesn't expect to grow as attached as he does.





	A Purrfect Home

**Author's Note:**

> Flufftober Day 15: Kittens.

Holding his hands over his ears and muffling a frustrated cry into his pillow, Alec doesn’t have to wonder how he got here. 

A few weeks back he thought it was a little strange when Magnus started doting on one of the stray cats in particular - usually he was very careful about not playing favorites with them, but he insisted that one just looked like she needed ‘a little extra love right now’, and Alec didn’t question it. 

Until he noticed how large she was growing. Much larger than a cat who is simply gaining weight from being overfed by an overeager warlock. 

And then one day Alec came home to a little box on the balcony, where she stopped climbing up and down the fire escape and simply stayed, and Alec realized. 

“She’s pregnant!” 

“Is she? Oh, well, that would certainly explain--” 

“You realize she practically lives here now, right? You’ve adopted a pregnant stray, and-” They debated on like this for a little while but, in the end, Alec agreed to let the cat stay semi-permanently. Of course, he’d been so focused on the extra work caring for a pregnant cat was in the moment that he hadn’t even  _ considered _ what they were going to do in the aftermath. 

The aftermath he’s living now, trying to ignore the sound of  _ yet another _ glass breaking somewhere in the Loft, and the soft meowing of six other kittens, just long enough to get more than two hours of sleep. Because of course they were born in the middle of winter, and neither of them have the heart to throw newborn kittens back onto the frigid streets of New York no matter how annoying they are. 

Magnus, who can sense his husband’s frustration, turns over in bed to place a gentle kiss on each of Alec’s temples, right by where he’s still covering his ears and keeping his eyes stubbornly closed, though the uptick at the corners of his mouth betray that the action is enough to ease some of his immediate frustration. 

“Just a little while longer, darline,” Magnus promises. 

“Can’t we give them to a shelter, or… put an ad online or something?” Alec suggests. 

“Absolutely not! You know how fussy Raggy gets about eating, we can’t just go tossing them at the nearest stranger!” Magnus says, sounding like Alec suggested they throw the kittens off the balcony rather than a simple rehoming. 

“What if… we found them homes with people we trust?” Alec offers instead. 

Magnus considers this. “Maybe.” He says finally, before getting up and getting ready for the day. It’s better than nothing and Alec latches onto the potential of that ‘maybe’, asking everyone from Cat to Izzy to even  _ Clary _ if they’d want a kitten. 

Alec wants to bring them to the Institute to leave behind overnight, just for one night, but 15 minutes after trying to leave them there to wander the building and annoy the overnight staff for a few hours he gets a call that all of the kittens have been sitting at the exact spot he portalled out from, crying nonstop since he left. Alec gives a resigned sigh before portalling back to pick them up. Every single kitten sleeps on the bed around him that night. 

“They  _ like _ you, Alexander. And I can’t exactly blame them,” Magnus points out with a soft smile. 

“You can’t flatter me on behalf of the cats, that isn’t fair,” Alec whines. 

But he can’t argue it, either. They are rather fond of him, and after the first few weeks of chaos they calm down a bit which makes them far more endearing. It also helps that he and Magnus have long since removed anything breakable to storage so they don’t have to get up every time they hear something fall.

It isn’t long before Alec starts bringing home extra treats, fancier foods he reads up about online, and even a little exercise wheel that he sees for sale one day in a shop window. He still gets annoyed when they climb all over him while he tries to finish a few reports at home, or when they scratch at the side of the bed to wake him up when they drop a toy in the water bowl, but the little ploys for attention tip the scales from obnoxious to endearing. Not that he openly admits this to anyone. 

When the winter thaws and they open the balcony door again the cats wander freely in and out. It isn’t until one day when some of them leave to wander the city, and Alec’s heart sinks when he comes home to find them missing. They wander their way back, but it’s something that rests heavy on Alec’s mind until Magnus comes home later that night. 

“So, some of the cats ran away today from the balcony,” he starts slowly. 

“Well, they aren’t actually ours, are they? So they can’t technically run away,” Magnus points out. 

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. It’s just…” Alec hesitates. “What if we keep them inside again?” 

Magnus smirks. “You want to adopt them?” 

“No, just… I mean, the city can be rough, you know? And they’re so used to being inside, I wouldn’t want something to happen to them now that we made them soft,” Alec says, very unconvincingly. 

“Yes.  _ We _ made them soft,” Magnus says, and Alec rolls his eyes at the implication but doesn’t argue the fact that maybe, in the end, he spoiled them a little more than was strictly necessary. “We can always let them decide. You said they came back today, so what if we let them have free reign to come and go as they please. And if they want to stay here, they’ll come back.” 

“...and if they don’t, you can track them to make sure they’re okay, right?” Alec adds. 

“Yes, darling. Of course,” Magnus agrees. 

“Okay. That sounds like a great plan.”

Alec never admits to adopting the five kittens, and whenever anyone brings it up he insists that they just keep coming back, but everyone knows that’s exactly what he did. And if Magnus notices Alec spoiling the cats a little extra to make sure they keep coming back he doesn’t say anything. 

But when Izzy overhears Alec making cooing noises at them when she swings by for an impromptu visit Alec never hears the end of it. 

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
